Was having a talk with gf and she said she paid(her family was poor back then) around 10万+(入学準備) and the main culprit was that bulky ass leather bag for 6万 and school uniform. Tried to search on the net and the AVG was 6万 on few websites few years ago. Can parents afford this??? How was it for you or your kids?? Back in my home country it was all cheapo and mostly free.
For my future if I have kids would love to put this much money into their hobbies or study abroad funds so that they can live without any debts or compromisation (Like my parents did it for me).
Edit: I also don’t understand why standardizing that bulky bag is a thing cause the price seems to be from 4万~10万+ so the comparing culture won’t fade away.
Edit 2: Don’t even want to bring up school uniform cause that’s BS to spend 10万alone when school is supposed to be free
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4man for the bag (usually gifted by the grandparents I was told) and we had to pay 6man for the uniform for a public school.
The bag does last for 6 years though and is sturdy enough to carry the backbreaking amount of stuff in their bag.
The older versions of randoseru were more expensive. There are various options now with varying materials/mixed materials. You don’t need to pay 60,000 yen. I think we payed 45,000 and we could have gone cheaper.
Elementary school does not require uniforms in my district.
We did need to buy a melodica and an art set I think. That would have been maybe another 10,000 or so?
I’m not a parent, but a quick search on メルカリ turned up a number of school bags/randoseru for under 1万. Buying used means the burden is on the buyer to make sure the product is undamaged and in good condition, but it seems like a decent option.
There are also new schools bags available for 1 to 2万 available on Amazon. I’m sure if you shop around, you could even find cheaper ones.
6万 isn’t that expensive for a ランドセル .
I bought my son’s bag on Yahoo auctions second hand for less than 3000¥. A year in it’s going absolutely fine and he likes it.
In-laws actually offered to buy a new one as is usually the custom. But just seems like an egregious waste of cash regardless of how well off you are.
You can get last year’s design ランドセル for as low as ¥15,000.
I forgot where we got it, but we got 2 ランドセル for my 2 youngest for less than ¥40,000 total a couple of years back. And no, that’s not 2nd hand. That’s new just not the newest/current year’s design, but rather rather the design from previous year’s.
My kid’s school ( Kanagawa) didn’t require them. In his first grade class, around 5 kids used whatever bag they liked. By 6th grade, almost no one was still using their randoseru, it was considered unfashionable. Also no uniforms apart from gym class.
Perfectly fine used randoseru for under 10,000! The first year classmates won’t know it’s second hand because you’ll have to put the reflective protective sheet on to signal to traffic that you’re a first grader. By the second year, your classmates’ Randoseru will look just as used, or in many cases way worse, than your own!
We got our 2nd one from Mercari for 5000~7000yen and it was in a VERY good condition.
I remember seeing a lot if “got my kid a new one during their last year in 小学校(6th grade)” in the description.
I was able to chat with my seller & found out that our boy isn’t the only weirdo who’d leave their shoulder straps twisted during their walk to school & home (that’s how the straps ripped after 5-6 years).
I don’t get how they didn’t feel uncomfortable wearing twisted shoulder straps.
Edit: typos
I was bitching about the bag to my husband and he just shrugged it off and said the grandparents always buy the bag for kids. Still far more than the $20 bag I used for all of elementary school, but it’s a social requirement. I just feel bad for the grandparents because it puts them in the situation where they have to buy the bag or else it looks bad for them.
But between uniforms (kids grow a lot during elementary school, so you’ll be buying new ones to keep up), PE uniforms, and the supplies, ‘free’ school is very expensive in Japan. And if they join any clubs or sports it gets even more so.
The Randoseru used to be required and there was only two color choices of red and black. The costs were absolutely crazy high so (maybe a decade or two ago) the local governments stopped forcing all students to buy those expensive backpacks and said that they were able to use any bag in any color.
When I first came to Japan in 2006, I saw a TV program about Tiger Mask (an old pro wrestler or manga based on wrestling or something, don’t know the details) which is a kind of movement that had random people buy randoseru and gift them to kids at orphanages because they wouldn’t be able to afford it to go to school. Nowadays, the grandparents tend to gift the bags to the kids.
Now that you can use any bag you want, the colors and cheaper versions have appeared. It used to be VERY expensive to set a kid up for elementary school here. So much so that people in extreme poverty couldn’t afford to pay for all of that.
Stop whining. Yes, the randoseru is a bit of a scam but overall is not that bad …100,000 or so to send your child to school is a fantastic deal and if you cannot afford it, you really shouldn’t be having children in the first place.
Perhaps think of it as a couple of thousand yen a week if it helps ease your mind.